September 2019  
 

Welcome to 2019-20!





 

New Spaces and New Faces

 
 
 
   
     

We hope you had a relaxing and rejuvenating summer! If you were in the city and anywhere close to Branksome Hall, you would have seen a buzz of activity on campus, including a highly successful summer day camps program and our IB Summer Workshops for teachers.

We were also busy making a number of exciting campus upgrades over the summer, including the new iHUB in the Senior and Middle School and additional 'classrooms of the future' in the Junior School.

It is always wonderful to welcome new faces to Branksome. This year that includes more than 20 new faculty and staff, as well as new students joining us from 106 different schools who are competitive debaters, gymnasts, tennis players, visual artists, STEAM fanatics, robotics lovers, and more. This week we warmly welcomed a total of 908 students from JK to Grade 12, and last week 64 Boarding students arrived on campus from 18 countries around the globe, including China, Germany, Mexico and the West Indies.
 
 

Looking Ahead

 
 
 
   
     

Our key priorities for the coming year include:
  • Being a values-driven school - Embracing our work on our four core values (sense of community, inclusiveness, creativity and making a difference) to ensure we are an inclusive community of creative students and employees committed to making a difference every day.
     
  • Supporting social-emotional learning (SEL) - Building competencies in students and employees to support how we understand ourselves, how we work with others, and how we make good decisions.
     
  • Developing an innovation mindset - Focusing on curiosity, creativity, open-mindedness and problem-solving to ensure we are well-positioned to meet the future for our school, our students and our employees.
 
 

An Innovation Agenda

 
 
 
   
     

One exciting new way that we are preparing our students for success this year is by launching Noodle ----the Branksome accelerator ----which will allow students in the Senior and Middle School to develop their design-thinking skills as they prototype solutions to societal challenges. This one-of-a-kind start-up framework for students will nurture, identify and bring-to-life our students' most inventive ideas with the support of faculty, expert advisors and entrepreneurs. You will hear more about this innovative experiential learning opportunity for students in the coming weeks.

Noodle will grow and soon need a home, which is why we were excited to announce last spring plans to build a new 40,000-square-foot Innovation Centre and Studio Theatre facility on our east campus. The Innovation Centre space will house leading-edge technology and allow for the development and delivery of interdisciplinary IB curriculum to our students. This facility will provide a space for every type of innovator and take students out of their comfort zones, unleashing their creativity and promoting diversity of thought, skills and interest.  

With these exciting new developments at our school, students and employees will have even more ways to make a difference, including opportunities to address gender inequity in the STEM fields and promote entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation.
 
 

branksome news

 
 
 
   
     

New Year, New Spaces
Back-to-school at Branksome Hall has never felt more futuristic. Over the summer, a number of exciting upgrades were made across campus, including the development of innovative new spaces.

Branksome Receives Silver Award for Website
This year, Branksome Hall was the proud recipient of a Silver Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in the category of Digital Communications: Websites.
 
 

what's ahead

 
 
 
   
     

We look forward to seeing parents at Curriculum Night for the Junior School on Wednesday, September 11 (6:30 p.m.) and on Thursday, September 12 for the Senior and Middle School (6:00 p.m.).

On Tuesday, September 17, Branksome Hall's 2019 Installation ceremony will take place from 1:30-3:00 p.m. in the Athletics and Wellness Centre (AWC) for students in Grades 6-12. This longstanding school tradition celebrates student leadership, and this year we will welcome keynote speaker ----award-winning film director and producer ----Miranda de PENCIER'87.

On November 11-12, we will be welcoming Dr. Denise Pope, of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, for conversations with families and with employees on skills and strategies for relational well-being and helping communities to flourish and thrive. More information to come shortly.

We have the privilege to teach and impact young people every day. There is no greater responsibility or calling----and we look forward to continuing to do it together this year.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and inspirational year ahead!
 
 
   
   

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